cookie n. a screen, board, card, or cloth, cut with shapes or holes, used to throw a light pattern when shooting film or television; the light pattern thrown by such a device. Also cucoloris, cucolorus, cucaloris, kukaloris, kookaloris, cuke, coo-koo, kook, dapple sheet, ulcer, gobo. Etymological Note: A claimed etymology is that kukaloris is Greek for “breaking of light,” but there seems to be no evidence to support this, nor can the etymological claims in the 2001 cite below be verified. Another claim is that it is named after its inventor, a Mr. Cucoloris; however, this, too, lacks supporting evidence. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
You must log in to post a comment.
Deviled Eggs (episode #1554) 09/14/2020:
Some TV commercials launch catchphrases that stick around long after the original ads. The exclamation Good stuff, Maynard! is still a compliment almost 40 years... [more]
Play It by Ear (episode #1553) 08/31/2020: How does social context shape our perception of language? When hiking the Appalachian Trail, a young woman from Wyoming found that fellow hikers assumed she... [more]
Moon Palace (episode #1552) 08/17/2020: What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of... [more]
Online Event August 27, 2020: Lemonade, Anyone? 08/04/2020: ... [more]
Cherry Bombs (episode #1551) 07/27/2020: An ornithologist says there's a growing movement to change the name of a pink-footed bird currently called the flesh-footed shearwater. The movement reflects a growing... [more]
I think it’s more like “cookie cutter”, i.e they seem stamped out in the same way as one would make cookies in different designs.
That’s a logical theory, but there’s no evidence to support it, not even enough to mention it as a theory. I’m still looking, though.
(One theory I saw but also has zero evidence supporting it, was that “cookie” came first, then someone invented the word “cucaloris” which it was supposedly short for.)